News in Brief (AM) – Geneva

In Bulgaria, concerns are growing about poor conditions in reception facilities for migrants which the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR has described as “deplorable”.

At the country’s largest migrant centre in Harmanli last week, residents threw rocks and burned tyres to protest at overcrowding and restrictions on when they could enter and leave the facility.

Police used rubber bullets and water cannon to contain protesters, UNHCR said.

The agency’s William Spindler told journalists in Geneva that the incident has prompted calls for asylum-seekers to be expelled on security grounds.

“Harmanli is seriously overcrowded, since it is hosting 3,100 asylum-seekers, of whom one third are children, when its official capacity is 2,710Reception conditions are also substandard at other reception centres and detention facilities in Bulgaria. The temporary detention facility of Elhovo, near the border with Turkey, is occupied at nearly 130 per cent of its capacity in deplorable conditions.”

UNHCR is calling for the Bulgarian authorities to establish a dialogue with frustrated asylum-seekers and says it will continue to support efforts to defuse community tensions.

ISIL “shooting residents” and children in Mosul

In the city of Mosul in Iraq, concern is growing for residents amid reports that ISIL extremists have shot people who have refused to let them into their houses to fight the Iraqi army.

According to the UN Human Rights Office, OHCHR, ISIL has been installing rocket launchers and placing snipers on the rooftops of civilian houses.

On 11 November, the terrorist group reportedly shot and killed 12 civilians in Bakir neighbourhood in eastern Mosul city for refusing to allow ISIL into their homes.